The second largest country in Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ranked 5th of 178 countries on the 2019 Fragile States Index, placing it in the highest category of risk (“very high alert”). DRC is now the second largest hunger crisis in the world after Yemen. Hunger and conflict fuel one another, with armed conflict and widespread displacement prevailing for the past 25 years and multiple other crises compounding DRC’s humanitarian challenges.

Since 2016, the long-running crisis in the east (Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, and Tanganyika provinces) aggravated and spilled over to previously stable regions, such as the Kasai and the Equateur, forcing some 4.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) to flee from their villages and lose their agricultural livelihoods and jobs. The number of food-insecure people almost doubled from 7.7 million in 2017 to 13.1 million in 2018, making access to food a daily struggle for a significant part of the Congolese population. An estimated 5 million children are acutely malnourished.

A tenth outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) was declared in August 2018 – the third in two years, and second of 2018; so far it has claimed thousands of lives in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. It is the worst outbreak in the country’s history and the second largest and deadliest EVD outbreak globally. Fatal security incidents and community resistance to Ebola response are among key hurdles to ending the outbreak, which crossed into Uganda in June 2019.

More than 800,000 Congolese nationals are refugees in neighbouring countries while DRC, already struggling with internal conflict, hosts more than half a million people from Burundi, Central African Republic and South Sudan.

With 80 million hectares of arable land, DRC has the potential to feed 2 billion people. Only 10 percent of its arable land is cultivated. Nevertheless, subsistence farming is prevalent in DRC, with families producing 42 percent of the food they consume. While needs remain focused on crisis response among vulnerable populations, WFP and partners are shifting gradually to resilience-building activities, to and enhancing people’s self-reliance through DRC’s agricultural potential. Growing food is also a tool to advance recovery and peaceful co-existence between ethnic groups.

The 2016 Cost of Hunger in Africa study found that undernutrition costs the DRC 4.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – equivalent to US$ 1.7 billion – every year.  This includes loss in productivity, high health care costs for the treatment of malnutrition-related conditions and workforce reduction due to early deaths.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has been present in the country since 1973.  WFP collaborates with national actors and government institutions to enhance their capacities in disaster risk management and emergency preparedness. The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) and the provision of logistics services to the humanitarian community are also central to WFP’s portfolio in the DRC.

Show more
82 million
population (World Bank estimate)
13 million
people are severely food insecure
4.8 million
people are internally displaced

VIDEO - Kasai emergency

Download country brief

What WFP is doing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

  • Crisis response

    In October 2017, WFP activated a corporate Level 3 Emergency covering the six most populous and conflict-affected provinces – North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, Kasai, Kasai Central and Tanganyika. A significant scale-up of WFP activities was required to reverse the deepening hunger crisis and WFP’s strengthened field operations yielded substantial results by reaching 5.2 million Congolese beneficiaries in 2018 with lifesaving food and nutrition assistance. In 2019, WFP is targeting over 5 million people. DRC Emergency Page

  • Ebola

    WFP helps reduce the propagation of the Ebola virus by providing food to Ebola patients and potentially affected people, and by providing crucial logistical services, including trucks and planes, which enable responders to reach new or remote outbreak areas quickly. WFP also launched a school feeding programme in the affected areas to address the needs of the population through a more holistic approach and build trust and positive engagement. DRC Emergency Page

  • Support for smallholder farmers

    WFP in partnership with FAO, UNHCR and UNICEF works with returnees, IDPs, refugees and local communities to build assets that improve resilience to shocks, promote self-reliance and economic recovery. These joint programs help smallholder farmers to improve production and trading capacities, provide trainings on agricultural techniques, literacy to promote women’s empowerment, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure. Small-scale livelihood activities are also being developed with refugees from Central African Republic and host communities.

  • Nutrition

    In order to treat and prevent malnutrition, WFP is providing specialized nutritious food to vulnerable people including children under 5, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Targeted populations also receive tailored, nutrition-focused communications.

  • School meals

    WFP’s emergency school-feeding programme provides meals in schools, mostly located in Ebola affected and returning areas from the North Kivu province. The meals improve the nutrition of vulnerable students and increase school attendance, thereby reducing the risk of children being recruited by armed groups.

  • United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS)

    The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service provides aid workers, donors and diplomatic missions with safe, flexible, efficient and cost-effective air transportation to 40 locations across a country the same size as western Europe. UNHAS also enables access to Ebola-affected areas for the entire response community, with four aircrafts having been added to the fleet.

  • Humanitarian coordination

    WFP leads the Logistics and Emergency Telecommunications (ETC) Clusters, which coordinate responses to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of humanitarian assistance for the entire humanitarian community in the DRC. WFP also co-leads the Food Security Cluster with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Related publications

Show more

In focus

Read more stories

Democratic Republic of the Congo news releases

Go to page

Partners and donors

Achieving Zero Hunger is the work of many. Our work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is made possible by the support and collaboration of our donors, including:

Find out more about the state of food security in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Visit the food security analysis page

Operations in Democratic Republic of the Congo

View all operations

Contacts

Kinshasa,

Boulevard du 30 Juin, Immeuble Losonia - Gombe, Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Email

claude.kalinga@wfp.org

Phone: switchboard (+243) (0) 817 006 714 and 815 552 199/2499/2899/2399

Fax:

For media inquiries

claude.kalinga@wfp.org